May 11, 2005
GREAT EIGHTIES ROCKER CHICKS
This evening we continue our stroll down amnesia lane with Cyndi Lauper. Yes, THAT Cyndi Lauper. One of the more unusual rockers of the mid-eighties who had a string of Top Ten hits, including the LMC favs, True Colors and Time after Time. She has that slightly twisted allure about her that has to be taken only in small doses--any more and she becomes annoying. She is still out there, still touring-love her, hate her, but like Jerry Garcia, she keeps on truckin'. (Yes, I know Jerry's dead but the fact he managed to make it into his fifties, diabetes and all, is a testament to how much abuse the human body can take and still function.)
Posted by LMC at May 11, 2005 10:48 PMGirls just wanna have fun....
Posted by: KMR at May 12, 2005 06:21 AMYou know. 'Round 'bout the time that Cyndi and Madonna were hitting it big I was with a friend who said to me "You know? Cyndi has more talent, but Madonna is going to be the one that becomes a mega-star."
Now one can argue about the talent level, but you can look back and see two promising careers wildly diverging...
Posted by: The Maximum Leader at May 12, 2005 08:53 AMShe was on Soundstage on PBS (SCETV) last saturday (May 7) and apparently has a new album.
Posted by: George at May 12, 2005 10:42 AM
Was never much of a Cyndi fan, I have to say.
To me, she was a one hit wonder who didn't have the courtesy to fade from the limelight like, say, Katrina and the Waves, or Dexy's Midnight Runners. Or even Tracy Ullman, who had the sense to switch careers.
I know people will say that Cyndi had many hits, but in my book, they're mostly 80s B-sides.
As I recollect, she blew out her voice from over-exertion - I forget when - and had to go through a long period of what amounted to vocal rehab.
Posted by: Robert the LB at May 12, 2005 12:52 PMIIRC, the vocal blowout came *before* all the big hits (or at least the first one did) -- if you've ever heard how she belted out tunes in her pre-solo-career band Blue Angel, or read any of the stories about how she 'paid her dues' doing Janis Joplin covers (of all things -- the mind boggles, it does...), it's easy to imagine how she could've crash-landed her larynx (although even with Blue Angel, a lot of her now-famous/notorious vocal quirks were already firmly in place -- and yes, I've actually got a couple of her albums, why do you ask?...)
Posted by: LDH at May 12, 2005 05:46 PM
